A nature walk by The Land Trust for the Little Tennessee will be held Friday, Oct. 21, at Tessentee Bottomland Preserve in Macon County just south of Franklin.

The walk will feature different types of forest stands, historic farmhouse and silo and stands of rivercane. Tessentee Bottomland Preserve is stop No. 53 on the N.C. Birding Trail, with the preserve’s bird list at 116 species and it’s butterfly list at 43 species and counting.

Jason Love, LTLT board member and site manager for Coweeta Long Term Ecological Research, will lead the hike.

To get to Tessentee Bottomland from Franklin; take the Georgia Road (U.S. 23/441) south for approximately 5.2 miles, turn left onto Riverside Roadd and follow for 0.5 miles, turn right onto Hickory Knoll Road and follow for approximately 1.9 miles — the preserve is located off a private drive (2249 Hickory Knoll Road) on the right side of the road; parking area is on the left, before the farm gate.

For directions from other locations and to RSVP, contact Jill Wiggins at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 828.524.2711 x209.

LTLT acquired the original 64-acre tract of bottomland and river bluff land at the junction of Tessentee Creek and the Little Tennessee River in November 1999. The conservation project was made possible by grants from the NC Clean Water Management Trust Fund, The Lyndhurst Foundation and significant donations from LTLT supporters. The parcel was the first land protected on the free-flowing Little Tennessee and now, 12 years later, in 30 different land protection projects, more than 20,000 acres and 35 miles of river frontage have been conserved. In December 2009, a bargain sale by Margaret Parks, in honor of her late husband, James (Jim) Parks Jr., allowed LTLT to add another 5.6 acres to its Tessentee Bottomland Preserve. Parks sold the property to LTLT for less than one-half of its market value and financed one-half of the purchase price to allow LTLT time to raise funds for the project.  For more information about the conservation and restoration projects of LTLT, visit www.ltlt.org.